Wall Street finally got the Seventh Avenue deal it was jonesing for.
Jones Group, whose brands include Nine West, Anne Klein and Stuart Weitzman, announced a long-anticipated agreement to go private in a sale to Sycamore Partners.
The New York-based shoe and apparel company said late Thursday it will be acquired in an all-cash transaction for $15 a share, or $1.2 billion, plus the assumption of about $1 billion in debt.
The deal caps a marathon auction run by Citigroup that began this spring. Talks had been unusually complicated because of the multitude of brands owned by Jones.
Jones CEO Wes Card, who has led the company since 2007, said the deal was “a result of diligent analysis and thoughtful strategic deliberations over many months.”
Indeed, sources said Sycamore entertained numerous partnerships as it circled Jones, at one point weighing a joint bid with private-equity giant KKR.
More recently, insiders said Sycamore had been mulling a joint bid with Seventh Avenue fashion house G-III Apparel, whose recent acquisitions include the pricey Vilebrequin swimming trunks brand.
But G-III pulled out of negotiations last month, prolonging an auction that had been expected to fetch a higher price, according to sources briefed on the negotiations.
Before the announcement, Jones shares had closed in regular trading at $14.13, off 31 cents. The stocked jumped 4.6 percent, to $14.78, on the news.